


Queen of Hearts

by justJo



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Condoms, F/F, like probably a hundred, lots of condoms, lots of cussing, sorry - Freeform, we just dont know - Freeform, what the fuck is this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-04-28 21:01:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5105618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justJo/pseuds/justJo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ymir will do anything for free shit, and has managed to garner a few friends who don't mind giving her that free shit in exchange for her measly company. One of the conditions to free things is accompanying her roommate, Mikasa, to the school's play one weekend, and Ymir easily falls in love with the main character. Perhaps someone should remind her that actors are usually nothing like the characters they play...</p><p>(Began editing/rewriting on 4.3.17- some things have changed!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Umm. I wanted to write a shitty AU, so here we are. This is my first one, too, and it totally shows. OOPS. I've got like, maybe part of this actually figured out??? I think I'm starting to get a more general idea of where I want it to go, though.  
> I love channeling my inner Ymir, she kicks ass.  
> I'll try to update every Thursday??? How's that? I might totally break that for a while and upload a bunch of chapters in like a week, though... oh well. We'll see. We can just roll with the idea of weekly updates and see where it takes us.
> 
> My tumblr is heytheredelulu so uhh I guess if you like this feel free to bug me? Hope you guys do like it though.
> 
> one day we'll get a less shitty summary, too

As a university student, accidents were, well, completely unavoidable. The severity ranged from tripping down a flight of stairs in front of an entire crowd of people, to passing out in the library and spilling coffee all over yourself after a ten-hour study session, and everything in-between.

Unfortunately for Ymir, her accident might have been a little more severe than that. Upon awakening, all she could really think about was rolling to the side and doubling over into the trash can that was conveniently placed beside the bed. After a few minutes she brought herself to a sitting position, rubbing at her temples and chancing a glance at the other inhabitant of the bed. Shit, had she fucked Bertholdt last night? Surely she'd feel different, right? She couldn't remember a thing, just that there'd been a football party the night before, and she didn't even _like_ football that much, but there was free booze and she didn't want to look like the loser she'd undoubtedly become since arriving at university.

Hungover regrets aside, the freckled girl stumbled to her feet, gathered whatever was hers that she could find, and quickly left the room, disregarding any looks she received from the other residents of the godforsaken dorm. Maria, was it? At least her own wasn’t too far. Scrolling through her texts (two from her roommate, Mikasa, one about how she wouldn’t be at home that night and another saying she was free to join her and her friends for the usual Taco Bell and a movie over at Eren’s place), she wrinkled her nose at the time- 7:43. Who the fuck got up before ten anymore? No, wait- who the fuck got up before _noon_ anymore?

With a disgruntled noise, she shoved the device back in her pocket, and paused once inside Rose Hall, squinting through bloodshot eyes at the little bulletin board posted beside the elevators. Most were irrelevant to her- advertisements for the drama club (apparently there was a play showing the next couple of weekends), or another for the church down the road- but some, like the little flyer about the women's softball team tryouts, totally pertained to her interests (in this case, women. Specifically, stereotypical softball-playing lesbians, but she wasn't very picky). After snapping a photo of the softball ad, Ymir let her gaze flicker over the rest of the board, and hesitated before snapping a photo of the pamphlet about free HIV testing that upcoming Tuesday. If she _had_ slept with Bertholdt, it would probably be wise to get herself checked, and, of course, Ymir was all about being a responsible young adult. Grunting at her ability to make good decisions at 8am, the girl then carried on her merry way, stomping up the stairs just because she knew that Jean could hear it from his room, and he fucking hated it when she did that, and she fucking hated his hair, so it was fair game until he dyed it or something.

Mikasa wasn't home at all that day, it turned out, so majority of Ymir's time alone was spent sleeping, jacking off, or otherwise browsing the web and watching pirated movies. Eventually, though, she caught a wiff of herself and wrinkled her nose in absolute disgust, so she allotted herself some time to shower before heading down to Eren’s place (she’d accepted Mikasa’s earlier invitation, if only for the free food- Ymir would do leaps and bounds for free shit, honestly).

Eren’s apartment was a small, four-bedroom spread, and the strict same-sex rule was probably the only reason why Mikasa even bothered living in a dorm after her first year- otherwise, she would probably be living with her brother and their friends. As it was, the other girl was stuck rooming with Ymir, her total opposite in essentially everything but genitalia (Mikasa’s vagina was probably way prettier, though, and she actually had tits, unlike Ymir's flat-as-a-board chest), and Eren shared his apartment with his best friend, Armin, as well as some other kids they’d apparently gone to high school with- Connie and Marco. They were a really odd bunch, putting it lightly, and Ymir simply squinted at the shrimpy buzzcut-haired kid as he answered the door to their apartment.

“Ymir!” Connie yelled, nearly causing the girl to plug her ears. Why he had to yell all the goddamn time was absolutely beyond her, really- maybe he knew it pissed her off.

“Hey, stupid.”

Without another word, she shrugged past the little weirdo and set her stuff down in the living room, glancing around at the other people, and hoping to god none of them were around during any point the previous night, or had heard any rumors. Mikasa had made a brief appearance at the football party, and might remember way more than Ymir did, but, at the same time, Mikasa didn’t ever really spread rumors, so she wasn’t all that worried, offering the shorter girl a slight wave.

“Glad you made it, Ymir.”

“Me, too. I’m a slut for Taco Bell.”

Had she said that aloud? Way to fucking go. Mikasa smiled anyway, though, fucking bless her heart, and Eren turned away from the game he and Armin were playing, a victorious grin on his face. “Who isn’t? Taco Bell is the shit.”

“More like Taco Bell gives you the shits… What movie are we watching tonight?” Ymir grabbed a soda from the fridge and popped it open with one hand, chugging half of it in one go as Armin tried to answer over Connie’s obnoxious laughter.

“I think we decided on High School Musical?”

“…I can get behind that.”

Plopping down on the couch, Ymir made herself comfortable, resting her chin in her palm and holding her drink with the other hand. Marco was supposed to be picking up the tacos on his way back from work, as was custom of movie nights, and she couldn’t wait for him to hurry up so she could get her food already. Her stomach growled in agreement, earning her a grin from Eren, and Connie flopped on the opposite end of the couch, leaving Mikasa to settle in between them while the other two boys stayed on the floor. There was a La-Z-Boy beside the couch, but they tended to leave it for when Marco got back, since he worked all day and brought the grub without complaint.

"So," Connie sneered from beside Mikasa, and Ymir just stared at him with a dull expression as he turned to her. "I heard you came out of Bertholdt's room this morning." The tall girl just grunted in response at the same time Eren and Armin stared at her with wide eyes. Mikasa didn’t look all that surprised- then again, she didn’t seem to have many expressions, anyway, but Ymir was still willing to bet money that Annie had blabbed already.

"Nothing happened," she replied easily, shrugging, but the others still gave her skeptical looks. Eren looked ready to counter that, but Marco just so happened to walk in the door at that moment, and Ymir's tiny blip on the school's drama radar was forgotten almost as soon as it was brought up.

Nice.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No Historia this chapter, I'm afraid, it's really taking a bit longer than I had anticipated to get where I want to, bluh. But next chapter is exactly where we want to be, so I'll be sure to get that up by or on Thursday! Just enjoy this shitty early update if you can. And a (semi-belated) Happy Halloween to you all! Unless you don't celebrate it, then I hope you just had a kickass Saturday or something.  
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> My tumblr is still heytheredelulu

Ymir left after the movie was over, knowing Mikasa would be staying another couple of hours and could just take her back to their dorm in her car afterwards, but she had no desire to remain there any longer, so she opted for walking home, curling up in bed, and watching Netflix instead. The rest of the night had passed like that, and she was asleep before she even knew it, not waking up until sunlight streamed in through the blinds.

Stretching and twisting in order to pop her spine, Ymir reached blindly for her phone, dropping it on her face and muttering a few curses as she squinted up at the time.

10:28. She’d already missed her first class… nice. On the bright side, that meant she was free til 1, so she could have a decent breakfast for once (or, as decent as cheap college café food could be considered), but she really needed to start getting up on time. Why’d she taken an 8am again? Ugh.

Rolling out of bed, the lanky girl stretched and popped each of her limbs, pulled her messy hair up into a clip, grabbed her wallet and phone, nearly forgot to throw shoes on, and slipped out of the room in basketball shorts and a sweater. When she got to the first floor, Jean made some snide remark about her outfit from behind the counter, and she flipped him off. Tolerating his shit when she’d had caffeine was one thing, but Ymir had no coffee yet, and it wasn’t noon, either, so his horse face could piss off until she got that shit in her system. And beyond that, actually.

When she’d finally finished her food and thoroughly caught up on her tumblr dash, it was already a bit into the afternoon, and Ymir had absolutely no desire to change, so she went to class as she was. Nobody paid her much mind, anyway, and if they did, it’s not like she gave a shit. The only people she actually cared about were Mikasa and the gang, and that was mostly just Mikasa, honestly, though Marco was practically a saint. Armin was cool, and Eren and Connie were usually tolerable. That’s about it. She could handle Jean when he wasn’t being an asshole, but those times were few and far between, and usually just when he was around Marco, anyway.

That’s it. Those were all of her friends. But that’s all she needed, Ymir figured, kicking a rock on her way to class, bag slung over one shoulder. Some people could never get enough, but she liked her small group. Even if she wasn’t really close with any of them, they tolerated her, and they invited her to movie nights and gave her food and stuff, and that was… really cool. More than she could ever ask for, way more than she even deserved. The thought brought a sad smile to her face, and she was so caught up kicking things and moseying around that she nearly bumped straight into the dark-haired girl handing out fliers just outside the building that held her next class.

“Ymir!” The girl, Mina, chimed, all bundled up in a dull orange sweater and matching brown-and-orange scarf. It didn’t seem to match her black leggings, but Ymir also figured she, personally, didn’t know much about fashion, anyway, so she just shrugged it off and gave her a lopsided grin.

“Hi, Mina. Sorry.”

“You’re fine!” Mina looked happier than usual, despite the biting wind, and, while Ymir tucked her arms closer around herself, the shorter girl dug around in the stack of papers she was holding and handed one to her. “Here you go! The drama department is putting on an original twist on “Alice in Wonderland” this weekend. You should come! Please? I’d love to see your face there!” Was she blushing? Probably just the cold. Unable to reject the offer, but having no intention of obliging, Ymir shoved the flier in her bag and murmured her thanks and said she’d see what she could do before shuffling off into the somewhat warmer building. Damn, she should’ve gotten more coffee and brought it with her to class.

“Oi, Freckles!” Looking up at the familiar voice, Ymir offered her roommate an actual smile, tipping her head to the side. Mikasa only used nicknames on special occasions- what game was she playing today? “You’re actually on time to class, I’m surprised. Want to sit together?”  
  
Shrugging and disturbing her bag, the taller girl just nodded. “Yeah, sure. Eren blowing off?” Mikasa nodded. “Figures. I slept through art. Anyway, let’s go, I don’t want the shitty front row seating.”

They ended up in the second to last row in the back, much to Ymir’s delight, as the professor was positively dreadful and always put her to sleep if she sat anywhere near the front. It was easier to pay attention to what was going on on the board if she could doodle and listen to music, something she could only do in the back rows, and Mikasa didn’t seem to mind, which always kind of surprised her. Towards the end of class, when Ymir was sketching some weird harpy creature in the corner of her notebook, her roommate tapped her lightly on the arm, and she took out her earbuds, offering Mikasa a look with both brows raised.

_'Dinner tonight,'_ Mikasa had scribbled down on a small portion of her notes, gesturing to them with her finger. _'My treat?'_

Ymir read the text and then instantly shot her friend a squinty glance, suddenly suspicious. Alright, she definitely had some ulterior motive here. “What do you want?” she muttered, chancing a glance at the professor drawling on at the front of the room. Mikasa just shook her head and pointed at the same text again before going back to taking notes, leaving Ymir hanging until dinner that night.

Naturally, she could never say no to free things. Especially when it came to food. And Mikasa made a very strong case when it came to offering her roommate an entire dessert of her choice in exchange for one small, albeit monotonous, favor.

And that is how Ymir ended up making plans with the short-haired girl to see the school play that weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> seriously this chapter sucked I'm so sorry THE NEXT ONE IS SO MUCH FUCKING BETTER I PROMISE  
> DON'T LEAVE ME  
> I SWEAR IT'S BETTER


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shit shit shit this is mONTHS OVERDUE  
> I'M SORRY  
> FORGIVE ME  
> no but really, like, life happened, guys. i didn't even know that was a possibility. woah.  
> school is about to start up so while i'm gonna try to update once a week, i make no promises! but it definitely won't be months of waiting again- not without warning, at least.  
> this chapter is a little boring, sorry, but the next one is where everything starts happening! and you'll get to see what the play is about, too. i'm excited.
> 
> my tumblr is still heytheredelulu

"She's making you see the play?" Marco's voice, usually so angelic, was only pissing her off at this point, literally repeating everything she'd just told him as they discussed her terrible fate the next day over lunch. "Oh, that's not so bad! I heard the drama department is really psyched about it, apparently Professor Ral wrote the whole thing herself." He offered her a warm smile, then, which the lanky girl simply returned with a bored and slightly irritated expression as Eren, sitting to her left, lightly nudged her with his elbow.  
"I knew she was gonna try and get someone to go, but I didn't think she'd manage to rope you into it!" the boy sneered, stuffing his face with curly fries. "She tried getting me to go, but, well, Reiner's in it, and- you know-"  
"Yeah, yeah," Ymir waved her friend off with a hand, stealing a fry and pouting at him. She didn't need to hear Eren's 'Reiner Broke My Heart' story for the thousandth time. Apparently they'd dated over the summer, but it just hadn't worked out, for a number of reasons which Eren claimed to be all Reiner's fault. "It's not a big deal, I guess, and it's not like I had anything else planned, just, you know. Not my cup of beer."  
"Ymir," Marco smiled, "The expression is 'not my cup of tea,' not-"  
"Marco," the brunette cooed, smiling wickedly at him, "Tea is for pussies."  
Eren nearly choked on his soda.

 

A loud groan could be heard through the twisting hallways of Karanese Hall as Ymir nearly threw her phone at the opposing wall, earning a few concerned looks from those around her. _Fuck this game,_ she decided, repeatedly jabbing the screen with her index finger until the Flappy Bird game was deleted. It only took a few more minutes of boredom for her to re-download it, though, huffing through her nose as the bird died after only a few flaps.  
"Ymir?"  
Looking up from her position on a rickety bench on one side of the hallway, Ymir's pale golden eyes flitted around before landing on the woman who’d called her name. She was short, with chin-length, platinum-colored hair and one of the worst resting bitch faces Ymir had ever seen. She looked about ready to call out her name again when their eyes met, and the taller woman abruptly stood up and shoved her phone in her back pocket. “That’s me,” she offered after a second. The nurse simply nodded at her and turned away, walking back through the door with a call for Ymir to follow her. With a final glance at the other waiting students, she complied.  
They went through a few typical check-up things, like taking her height, weight, temperature, and heart rate, and Ymir had to fill out a few short forms before they could do anything else, as she’d never visited the school’s health clinic before. Actually, she hadn’t been to a doctor in years, come to think of it. Her immune system was pretty kickass. There had been one winter a few years back where she got the flu, but it was too cold for her to really want to go anywhere, so she opted for staying home and eating a lot of soup that week.  
“Alright, I’m just going to take some of your blood and submit it to the lab. After that, you can stick around for about half an hour if you want until we’ve got results, or you can head out and I’ll have someone give you a call when they’re ready.”  
“I’ll wait,” Ymir mused, presenting the other woman with her lanky arm. “My veins are hard to stick, though, so good luck.”  
The nurse, who’d introduced herself as Rico, muttered something under her breath and quickly left to get the materials and hand in Ymir’s paperwork, giving her a few minutes to dick around on her phone again. She managed to beat her Flappy Bird high score, but got too excited and died only two points later. Shit.  
“Alright, let’s get this over with, Ymir,” Rico called, shoving open the heavy door and pulling blue gloves over her spindly hands. Though she was a bit of a coward about most things, Ymir didn’t have a problem with needles, unless it took ten tries to stick her vein. Thankfully, this time it only took seven tries, so she was only mildly pissed (though she didn’t think she could say the same for the nurse, who looked more peeved than she had before- and that was definitely saying something). After sucking out a decent amount, Rico dismissed her, and Ymir was left sitting in the hallway again, occupying herself with games and social media to pass the time. At one point, she and Eren had been texting about what to do about Connie’s birthday, and joked about getting him a wig. Ymir was set on getting him a pair of suspenders, though. She wasn’t really sure why, it just seemed like a good match. Connie with suspenders. Yeah.

After a while, Rico reappeared and silently handed Ymir a file, held up a single finger as if telling her to wait, and walked back into the office without a word, leaving the girl just kinda sitting there, nervous and confused. What if she had something? God, she was so fucked, she totally had HIV or herpes or something, fuck. Who would take care of her dog? No, wait, she didn’t have a dog. She wanted one when she moved off campus, though, and that couldn’t happen if she was dead! She waited, file clutched in her hand, and Rico finally came back with a small paper bag, handing that to her as well. “Be more careful next time,” she sneered, before waving the student off and disappearing behind the door.  
Without checking to see what was in there, and not really registering anything else afterwards, Ymir shoved the bag in her backpack, clutched the file to her chest, and quickly headed back to her room. The walk seemed to last forever, but she finally made it to the dorm, shoved past Jean and Marco goofing off in the lobby, and rode the elevator up to her floor. In minutes, she was sitting on her bed under the covers and opening the paper, feeling almost as sweaty as the guy who potentially put her in this position in the first place. Sucking in a deep breath, Ymir slid open the envelope and pulled out the few sheets of paper inside.

Negative.  
She was going to live.

She got a text from Marco a couple of minutes later. Apparently they could hear her celebrating all the way from the lobby. Woops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAAAAYYYYY NO STIS  
> i feel ymir on this deep level  
> sort of  
> not really  
> not at all actually
> 
> i hope i make a good ymir i guess we'll see as time goes on  
> look forward to another update within the week! i'm too excited for historia to leave y'all hanging for long (;


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> been busier than anticipated (again), but at least it wasn't too long of a wait! just a little over two weeks... sobs. sorry! at least it's lengthier than usual. I think. fuck. it definitely FEELS lengthier to me.
> 
> my tumblr is still heytheredelulu

Ymir honestly hadn’t thought the play would be too bad. Sure, she wasn’t really looking forward to it, but, hey, not like she had anything better to do, especially since it was Mikasa that she was going with. Even the walk to the theatre had been decent. Situated in Sina Hall, at the heart of its campus, the university’s auditorium was spacious and of a higher class than most others. White marble floors were accented by gold paneling that stretched around the foyer, all the way to the painted gold doors that led to the warm-colored hall. The auditorium was everything the hallway was not- dark, comfortable, and, of course, crowded. There were hundreds of people (did they really give a shit about the play? There must’ve been a lot of professors offering extra credit for this thing), all squeezing into the best seats they could find. Mikasa was gone from Ymir’s side in an instant, leaving the taller girl to attempt to scramble after her. Maybe Mikasa was ditching her- no, that’d be stupid, she’d forced her to come here in the first place. Despite her previously good mood, Ymir was already irksome, having been told when they arrived that, no, there wouldn’t be any popcorn, because it’s not a movie theatre and college kids are relentlessly disgusting and leave trash everywhere.  
  
Tucking her elbows closer to her sides, the freckled girl shoved her way through the crowds, her eyes flicking around for any sight of her dark-haired companion. Instead, she felt a tug on her arm, and was pulled out of the fray, forcibly turning around to meet semi-familiar grey eyes… just, not the ones she’d been looking for. “Ymir!” the shorter girl exclaimed, causing Ymir to wince, “You came!”  
“Uh, yeah…” Something in the young woman told her that revealing her lack of enthusiasm for this play to Mina would be a bad idea, and she did her best to bite her tongue. As it was, her classmate looked absolutely thrilled, as always, and had that red tint to her cheeks again, something that probably shouldn’t have been so prominent in the dark room. “I came here with Mikasa, actually, have you seen her?”  
“Mikasa?” Mina repeated, furrowing her brow for a second and tilting her head just slightly. “Hm, no, I don’t think so! Hey, you two are _just_ roommates, right? No funny business goin’ on there?” She gave Ymir a playful nudge in the ribs and a wink, but it seemed a little forced, and even hurt a little. Rubbing her side, the darker girl nodded, and Mina went back to being all smiles, perking up again. “Good! Well, I have to get backstage now, but good luck finding her! And I hope you enjoy the play!” Still blushing, she turned and scurried off into the distance. Ymir didn’t bother watching her go, trying to push the awkward encounter out of her mind as she turned again and continued her search for Mikasa. After a few minutes, she found her roommate only a few rows from the front, waving her down. How she’d gotten such good seats, Ymir had no idea, but she’d learned to stop questioning shit like that a while back. Mikasa was just… Mikasa. She had her ways.  
“’Bout time I found you,” the tan girl groaned, flopping into her seat to her roommate’s left. “Mina was talking my fucking ear off, I thought I’d never see you again.”  
“Mina, huh?” Mikasa mused, messing with the thread in her scarf as she absently stared at the stage. The lights were getting dimmer- it seemed the play would begin soon. “She sure does seem to follow you around a lot. What’s up with that?”  
“No clue, but it’s annoying,” Ymir grumbled, running one hand over her face and slumping down where she sat, legs spread and elbow resting on the armrest between them. “She thought you and me were dating or something, like, what the fuck? As if I’m anywhere _near_ your league.” Mikasa snorted at that, giving her friend a playful nudge. “And anyway, I thought it was a well-known fact that you only have eyes for Annie.”  
That got the pale girl blushing, her voice almost muffled by her scarf now. “We aren’t a couple,” she mumbled, swatting at Ymir when she tried to talk again and pointing at the stage. She’d meant to ask why Annie wasn’t here with them, anyway, but a single spotlight had appeared in the dark room, and the auditorium went still as everyone waited. The curtains rolled open, and there stood a short, ivory-skinned girl. Her blonde-colored hair was shaved on one side, with the rest falling just short of her shoulders. The shirt she wore was simple- a black button up with the first three buttons undone, accompanied by skin-tight black jeans, knee-high black-and-red boots, a red belt, and fingerless black gloves. Dark makeup accented her bright blue eyes, and she looked as ferocious as ever, a cold determination in her gaze that sent shivers up Ymir's spine.  
“Wh-Annie’s in the fucking play!?” Ymir whisper-shouted, earning her another swat from Mikasa. Honestly, she had no idea Annie was even _in_ theatre, let alone in some weird-ass version of Alice in Wonderland. 

“Alice, you've arrived,” A faceless voice suddenly boomed through the speakers, a playful lilt behind it. Annie crouched to the ground, one knee bent as she stared out and past the crowd.  
“Why have you brought me here?” Annie ( _Alice,_ Ymir reminded herself) called, her gaze suspiciously shifting over the audience.  
“Hmm,” the voice hummed, as if in thought. Almost mockingly, it replied, “Why indeed, you think? I need you to do me a favor.  
"I need you to slay the Queen."

 

The first few minutes explained just what the hell was supposed to be going on. Annie-Alice was basically this hardcore knight-assassin-thing who’d been personally requested by some anonymous party to assassinate the Queen of Hearts, ruler of Wonderland, and also the namesake of the play. After about half an hour of hearing about her, Ymir wondered if the damn queen even had any lines, or if everyone was just going to talk about her without her making an actual appearance (which sounded absolutely stupid, but, what did she know about plays?). She’d gotten pretty bored by the time the red spotlight came on on one side of the stage, focused on a lone figure staring over a fake balcony.  
_That_ certainly got Ymir’s attention.  
She was similar to Annie in appearance, but also completely different. Where Annie was stoic and badass, this girl was soft and wore a calm but concerned expression on her heart-shaped face. She wore a sleeveless red dress that was sleek on the torso, but had a ruffled skirt and tail, and there was a heart-shaped hole in it over her belly button. Perched on her shoulders was a fluffy white shawl, and there was a silver crown on her head, tucked neatly into her long blonde hair, and topped with a heart-shaped gem. She was breathtakingly beautiful- no, beyond that, even.  
“Holy shit,” Ymir thought, receiving a hard nudge from Mikasa that made her realize she’d actually said that aloud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fucking love Annie  
> and yes she's a theatre major  
> if ur offended by how i spell theatre smd


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'ALL IT'S BACK  
> I've been working on editing the fic and getting it up to my ridiculously low standards so I could start writing again! I know it's been forever, but life just really kicked my ass and I just... lost all motivation, tbh. But here it is, after, like, a year LMAO.  
> Before reading this chapter, I would suggest going back and rereading the first 4, as some small things (and one kinda big thing) have changed since the last update!  
> I can't promise that I'll update once a week, as I'm actually in the process of getting ready to move, and I have a lot of art commissions to catch up on, but I will at least aim to upload once a month. I really want to see this fic through to the end!  
> Thank you all for continuing to support me, I really hope you like this new chapter!
> 
> My tumblr has changed to vulpicss, by the way! I track the tags "fic: qoh" and "fic: queen of hearts" for those interested, and my asks are always open! I can also be reached on deviantART under the name perfectkawa.

It'd been a little while since intermission, which meant there couldn't be too much time left in the play, but Ymir was on the edge of her seat now. The Queen (who, surprisingly, turned out to be a total sweetheart after her family's long history of egregious patriarchy), had managed to persuade Alice to fight _for_ her instead of against her, and they had just discovered that the Queen's once seemingly-deceased half-brother, who would have been heir to the throne had he not been thought dead, was the one who had ordered the hit on her in the first place. Now it was Annie-Alice versus the evil brother. Really, the plot was super cliche, but the tech crew was amazing, whoever had designed the costumes (especially Annie's pseudo armor) was definitely in school for the right thing, and the actors were so outstanding that Ymir wondered how many times Annie had lied to her face without so much as batting an eye.  
Of course, nothing and no one impressed her as much as the short actress playing the Queen, but her little homosexual heart was probably the _teeniest_ bit biased. Oh well.

"Even if you killed me now," the Queen of Hearts was speaking to her brother, "This kingdom would not be yours. The people are scared no longer, they will never let darkness reign over them again."  
"It's funny you say that," the brother- Ymir recognized the actor from one of her classes during the previous semester, but couldn't remember his name- chuckled, circling the two girls. "Because you _will_ die today, and I _will_ take over, and there is nothing you can do about it." Sneer on his face and sword in hand, he surged forward, plastic sword meeting Alice's as she leaped to the Queen's defense.  
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Annie-Alice shouted. The two fought for about a minute, intense music playing over the speakers as they clashed again and again around the stage. Ymir realized that they'd picked the music perfectly as well, and felt her heart racing with the beat as she watched the scene unfold before her, until-  
"Stop!" the Queen shouted, just as Alice had sent her brother crashing to the floor, one foot on his chest and her sword poised just above his bare throat. "Stop," she repeated again, a tear running down her face. "You... You can't kill him. Brother, I thought I'd lost you already." She turned her sad blue gaze down to the man. "I can't bear to see you killed before me, I can't lose you again."  
"Your highness-" Annie-Alice started, but the other girl silenced her by holding her hand up.  
"I can't," she repeated, dropping to her knees beside her brother and bowing her head. "I beg of you, Brother, see the error of your ways. Come back with me, and we can-"  
While Alice had been distracted by the Queen's begging, the brother had managed to get his sword back without either of them noticing. The blade seemingly pierced the Queen's heart, and Ymir noticed that whoever had made her outfit had made a little pocket in the dress, just above her heart, that fell open and spilled red streamers down her front when struck by the fake sword. It seemed like a nice touch, but all she could do was gasp as the only character she really cared about fell backwards and lay motionless on the ground.  
Almost instantly Alice's own sword struck the brother's neck, and he let out a gurgling noise before he ceased moving altogether. She stood there for a second, staring down at the two bodies, before her sword clattered to the floor. The lights faded out, and the curtains closed.  
To Ymir's surprise, there was enormous applause. Even _more_ to her surprise, she was one of the members of the audience giving a standing ovation, and Mikasa was doing the same. Several people whistled as the cast and crew came out and lined up along the stage, holding hands as they looked out at the crowd. Everyone but Annie and the other blonde-haired girl stepped back and began clapping for their two leads, and Ymir couldn't take her eyes off the smaller girl. She wore a big smile that fit her small face extraordinarily well, and the bright lighting only magnified her beauty. She and Annie bowed together, and then everyone moved off the stage, making way for the theatre professor, Ms. Ral, so she could take her own bow and then give a speech about the play that Ymir totally zoned out of.  
  
  


"You seemed to like that a lot," Mikasa teased as they headed out of the auditorium together. She would be hanging with Annie later, apparently, but, as it had been opening night, there was a lot of celebrating and discussion to take care of before the blonde could even think about leaving the theatre.  
"Well, you know," Ymir shrugged, though she felt her cheeks heat up a bit at being called out. "It was better than expected, I guess. I mean, it was cliche as fuck, but I really liked the acting. I haven't been to a play before," she added, sparing a glance at her roommate, who just nodded without pressing any further. The taller girl let out a small sigh of relief.  
They headed back to the dorm, but Jean stopped them on the way up to their room to play video games with him and Marco for a few hours until Annie called Mikasa to tell her she was finally free. They talked about the play, about everyone's weekend plans (of which Ymir had none, but she wasn't bitter about it for once), and about some of the drama that had gone down in their little squad recently. When Mikasa left, Ymir stuck around for only a short while before bidding goodnight to her other friends and retiring to her room, where she mostly just dicked around, spinning circles in her desk chair.  
  
She just couldn't stop thinking about the Queen.


End file.
